TOM PETTY - YOU GOTTA LOVE HIM

I just wrote about Tom Petty last night, but I read a great interivew with him at Rolling Stone magazine's web site. He basically talked about how his deal for playing the Super Bowl is a deal with the NFL, not any other sponsors - it's no different than when he plays The Tonight Show and there's commercials, or he plays an arena that hangs beer logos up. He can't do songs with drug references like "You Don't Know How It Feels," but so what - he has the opportunity to play to millions of people of all ages from all different kinds of backgrounds, just like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones did on The Ed Sullivan Show back in the day. They weren't allowed to have drug references in their songs either, and probably rightfully so. I know that that isn't cool to say, but if I had kids, I don't know that I'd want them to hear songs about "smoke another joint" on the Superbowl halftime show. Tom also promised no backing dancers or fireworks or whatever. He noted that recent Superbowl performers Paul McCartney, The Stones, U2 and Prince came off cool because they just basically did their thing. He also mentioned that he's working on a new album with The Heartbreakers, although he didn't mention the rumored reunion album he's doing with his Mudcrutch, the band he was in before he went solo (but some of The Heartbreakers were in that band also).